Module 1: Knowing Yourself and Your Colleague

Discovering and sharing one’s knowledge of self and others are essential to collaboration in teaching. Teachers begin their relationship on a social level and then move into knowing each other on a professional level as they discuss and negotiate differences and commonalities related to teaching expectations and instructional practice. To collaborate instructionally, it is important for them to know one another both personally and professionally.

Charlotte Danielson reminds us that When it comes to professional learning, it’s all about the conversation (Danielson, 2015). Before engaging students, the teaching pair or team should discuss instructional issues, differing viewpoints or potential conflicts, written plans, communication skills, cultural differences, committing to using differences as learning opportunities, and acknowledging that no pair or team is perfect (Conderman, 2010; DeBoer, 1995; DeBoer & Fister-Mulkey, 1998; Ploessl, D., Rock, M., Schoenfeld, N., & Blanks, B., 2010). As the relationship develops through consistent communication, the pair or team identifies shared commonalities and also unique differences in what they believe about how students learn and what pedagogies to use to address individual learning needs. Reflective, ongoing conversations— including identification and discussion of concerns or conflicts in priorities or educational beliefs—help the pair or team to set a team purpose and embrace shared goals. This reflection process also builds trust, an essential element in maintaining a culture of collaboration.